The modern sense dates back from the middle of the XVIIIth century and might have been influenced by the sound proximity of tignon, from tignasse.

The expression chignon de pain, is a local, dialectal prononciation of quignon de pain ("loaf of bread"). For dialectal equivalence of /k/ and /ʃ/ see campagne, champagne, camp, champ.

Note that, although not taken into consideration by the TLFi (see reference below), quignon could also be the etymon of chignon, considering that the same "pastry metaphor" applies to French macaron, English bun.